Developmental and Clinical Psychologist

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Diane Ehrensaft, Ph.D. is a developmental and clinical psychologist in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Director of Mental Health and founding member of the Child and Adolescent Gender Center, a partnership between the University of California San Francisco and community agencies to provide comprehensive interdisciplinary services and advocacy to gender nonconforming/ transgender children and youth and their families. She is an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of California San Francisco and the chief psychological at the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Child and Adolescent Gender Center Clinic (more information about the CAGC clinic can be obtained at their website). As part of her duties as the CAGC Director of Mental Health, Dr. Ehrensaft heads Mind the Gap, the mental health child gender specialist consortium within the center. Bay Area child, adolescent, and family therapists with specialization or interest in being trained in the gender affirmative model of mental health care can contact Dr. Ehrensaft about joining the Mind the Gap consortium, which meets monthly in Oakland, California for training, presentations, and discussions.

Dr. Ehrensaft’s research and writing focus on the areas of child development, gender, gender-nonconforming and transgender children and youth, parenting, parent-child relationships, LGBTQI families, and psychological issues for families using assisted reproductive technology. She has published several books and articles in these areas and lectures, serves as an expert witness, and makes media appearances nationally and internationally on these topics. Dr. Ehrensaft is presently working with Dr. Stephen Rosenthal, the medical director of the UCSF CAGC gender clinic, and three other sites in the U.S. on a five-year study funded by an NIH grant to study the medical and mental health outcomes of gender-nonconforming youth receiving puberty blockers and/or cross-sex hormones as part of their gender affirmative care.

Dr. Ehrensaft has a clinical practice in Oakland, California, where she sees adults, children, and adolescents in individual psychotherapy, both long and short-term. She also does parenting consultation, gender assessments and consultations, co-parenting counseling, and couples therapy related to parenting, gender, or assisted reproductive technology issues. Her areas of specialization include: gender nonconforming and transgender children; families using assisted reproductive technology; divorce issues; children with developmental issues or neurodiversity; parenting.

Dr. Ehrensaft is a senior consultant, founding member, and board member of A Home Within, a national project focused on the emotional needs of children and youth in foster care and offering pro bono long-term psychotherapy to children in foster care. More information about A Home Within can be obtained at: www.ahomewithin.org.

Dr.Ehrensaft also serves on the Board of Gender Spectrum, a national organization offering educational, training and advocacy services to promote gender acceptance for youth of all diverse genders. Information can be obtained at www.genderspectrum.org.

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Diane Ehrensaft’s most recent publication is The Gender Creative Child: Pathways for Nurturing and Supporting Chldren who Live outside Gender Boxes, New York: TheExperiment, 2016, with a foreword by Dr. Norman Spack.

“The Gender Creative Child is an invaluable resource for families and practitioners wanting to understand the complexity and beauty of gender development and the value of affirmative care. I’m struck that Dr. Ehrensaft’s most revolutionary idea is also her most straightforward—if we really learn how to listen to our children, they will tell us what they need.”
—Aron Janssen, MD, director and founder NYU Gender and Sexuality Service

“The Gender Creative Child should be required reading for all therapists, pediatricians, and K-12 educators and for parents whose children express their gender differently from societal expectations. Diane Ehrensaft deftly shows that many trans and gender-nonconforming children can be identified from a young age and how critical it is to provide support to them.”
—Genny Beemyn, PhD, trans educator and coauthor of The Lives of Transgender People

“Dr. Ehrensaft explains gender and children like no one can. She equips adults to understand and support gender-expansive children the way they deserve to be. This book is the newest must-have for every LGBTQ library and a must-read for every adult with a child in their life.”
—Lori Duron, author of Raising My Rainbow